The availability of portable processing devices, such as tablet PCs (personal computer) and mobile smart phones has made it practical to develop applications for learning.
An example of a learning application is a mobile learning trail. A mobile learning trail application is one having content (such as audio, text, images or videos) providing information (such as the history or places of interest) on several areas located within a particular region. For some cases, the content may be associated with a theme. Typically, to enhance a learning experience, such a mobile learning trail application is executed at the particular location for which the mobile learning trail application is designed.
HP Labs has a prototype technology called “Mscape” (http://www.hpl.hp.com/mediascapes/) for developing mobile learning trail applications. The learning application generated by “Mscape” is called “Mediascape”. It is a location-based mobile application that incorporates digital media with sights and sounds around the user. Upon the user entering a pre-defined area, corresponding multimedia information (such as digital images, video and audio) will be activated. Games, guided walks, tours, and destinations are examples of “Mediascape” applications.
The sensors which “Mediascape” use to activate a mobile learning trail application are GPS (Global Positioning System), FRID (Radio Frequency Identification) and Bluetooth. A 2D (two dimensional) barcode scanner can also be used to activate the multimedia information, thereby enabling interaction between a physical object and the electronically stored information. However, the use of a 2D barcode is both intrusive and unnatural in that it has to be physically present in the location associated with the mobile learning trail application. It may not be practical to place a barcode on certain objects or to demarcate scenery. Further, effective barcode recognition requires a close capture of the 2D barcode. With a large group of people present, having each person stand close to the barcode to capture an image of the 2D barcode would not be efficient.
A more natural way of image recognition, for retrieving information associated with captured images, is to use freely taken pictures. Google™ has an application, Google Goggles™ for Internet visual search (http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#landmark). With this application, people can use a phone to take a picture and search the Internet for information associated with the picture. A similar application—Point & Find™ by Nokia™—-assigns tags to taken images (http://pointandfind.nokia.com/), which are archived, and displays these assigned tags for newly taken images which are similar to the archived images. SnapTell™ (http://www.snaptell.com/) provides an application that uses image matching for advertising, where product information can be obtained from a snapped picture of the cover or packaging of a supported product. Such applications allow the use of a phone to take pictures on the move to access relevant information and services on the internet. However, the tools used by Google™, Nokia™ and Snaptell™ to create their respective applications are not accessible by the end user, so that the coverage provided by these applications is limited to what is made available.